Giving a Voice to the Silence offers positive angles to the issue that faces those with mental illness. Living with Schizo-Affective Disorder and being able to share my experiences with others, is the best way I know how to pay it forward. Life can be difficult, my goal is to bring a bit of hope to a place where many feel there is none.

Monday, April 28, 2014

“X” is for X-ray (transparency) #atozblogchallenge



 “Transparency is entering our lives in unusual ways and much like having individual veils lifted from a multi-veiled garment; we are now seeing the world ...”  

 For the purposes of this blog challenge; an x-ray is basically a transparency; a picture is taken, and you are able to see through the skin, getting a clearer picture of what is there.  This is what we fear the most as people in general, the idea that others would see us for who we really are.  We wear masks to hide our identity, feelings, desires and all too often our true aspirations for this world.  It is the fear of rejection that keeps us hidden within ourselves, what if they don’t agree or laugh, we are people who thrive on acceptance, without it, we are knocked down.  

This idea prompted a piece written by a friend several years ago and it the most accurate in describing what we may feel daily.   

***I’m frightened.  I’m unsure, because of what you might think of me, because of what some of you might say about me.  What you think and say, the way you act influences me.  I act as if they don’t, but they do.  Maybe you are frightened too.  Maybe the ones who will mock me the most signify the most frightened, I’m unsure.

You go by me day after day, you have activities near me, you even sit by me (though not too near, as if afraid of being misunderstood), but you don’t know me.  You form your opinions without real information.  You take the mask and try to declare the person, no, less than that, if you even understood the mask, you might glimpse the person.  How much time would it take?  How much effort?  I’m tired of hiding and I disrespect myself for sitting quietly, watching this happen to myself and to others.  We cross-space, glimpse a mask, or an opinion, and hurry along our way.  I am guilty, as are you.

What if, suddenly, we see one another for who we are?  The mask drops for an instant, followed by an embarrassed silence, a mumbled apology for being human.  Quickly we alter the subject or hurry away, frightened of what might befall us and perhaps frightened that it never will.  How many are there?  Am I one or many?  What will it take to change?  Maybe it will take only one. ****

Do you fear transparency?  Being truly open with people?  Is today to make a change and become the person you truly want to be?  What better time than now…….

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